ARMENIANS OF CALCUTTA

Dear Mr. Carapiet,

You have visited my web-site www.calcutta-armenians.blog.co.uk and I am sure you have got alot of information on the Calcutta Armenians from the postings there.

The Calcutta Armenian Trusts are 22 Trusts in number. All the trusts are designated for "the poor Armenians of Calcutta". Some trusts have additional clauses to assist monasteries in Iran and Armenia etc. Even so the basic fact, remains that the Trusts are primarily designated to benefit the Calcutta Armenians.

The income of the Trusts today stands at nearly £ 15 million Australian dollars a year. This huge income is squandered on everything else but not on benefiting the Calcutta Armenians. Hardly say one million dollars is spent on the poor Armenians.

Recently, in the last ten years, the rest of the funds have gone, in bulk, to one Dr. Devi Shetty, Asia Heart Foundation and his projects. Out of the Calcutta Armenian funds he has built a super speciality heart hospital and a eye hospital too. These hospitals are equipped with state of the art equipment all imported in the name of the "Armenian Church" (for tax evasion purposes). The benefits of these hospitals goes totally to rich paying customers and friends of the elite in Calcutta. Poor Armenians are told to pay, AND ARE REFUSED A DISCOUNT !!!!.

A case in point is the mother of ZAVEN STEPHEN, who is in Australia now. When she had a major heart operation in this heart hospital, built by the Armenian Church, this family was made to pay the entire bill amounting to several lakhs of rupees. Which they could not afford, as they a little savings from Zaven's dad's pensions fund. After her release from the hospital, Mrs. John even refused them the Church car to bring the ill lady home.

Huge amounts are paid to the Armenian College to educate those foreign children. 50 of these kids were sent back to Armenia, all expenses paid for by the Armenian Church. The poor in Calcutta are not refused third class train fare to look for jobs, or to go for medical treatment elsewhere in India.

Your family, as well as those of others, are all CALCUTTA ARMENIAN FAMILIES. As such we do have an interest in the well being of the funds and to prevent misuse. It is our duty to our ancestral heritage and the good names of our families. Many of us would not have been impoverished if our ancestors gave us the money instead of leaving it to this charity, which has closed its doors on the Calcutta Armenians.

It is become time now, for us organise ourselves to influence the future direction of the Calcutta Armenian Charity. An Association is needed to fight for the rights, interests and welfare of all Armenians who live in Calcutta and those whose families have definite and certain links to Calcutta.

For this reason, I am writing you for your advice and help. I am circulating this letter too to many other Calcutta Armenians with a special invite for us to join together for this specific purpose. There are hundreds of Calcutta Armenians, scattered all over the world, who can be invited back, housed, fed and assisted with some of the the best medical facilities to be found anywhere. Instead of living out their old age on small pensions and in terrible climates, they should be welcomed to settle back in Calcutta and its surroundings and the benefits of the Calcutta Armenian Trusts funds be extended to them.

At the moment we need to have office bearers of the Association and I look forward to hearing from the Calcutta Armenians with the names of persons who are interested in this Association.

The Association will be registered in Calcutta, as that will make an Indian Entity, whose voice could be heard in various forums, like the press and the Courts.

Please let me have your valuable advice and guidance. I would like to make it clear that the proposed Association, would not be MY PERSONAL ASSOCIATION, but a fully democratic body. If the members would entrust me with a suitable post, then certainly, I would be a humble worker of the Association working for the welfare of the Calcutta Armenians all over the world.

Yous sincerely,

MAX GALSTAUN

QUEENIE SOBTI, MURDERED !!!!

The late Mrs. Queenie Sobti, Warden of the Armenian Church, Calcutta, was a thorn in the side of MRS. SONIA JOHN Chairperson of the Armenian Church, Calcutta.

Queenie, as she was called, was a fighter for the poor. Many are the poor who remember her kind deeds and her ever ready help. She was a friend and helper of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

While Warden of the Armenian Church, she was bluffed by Sonia into signing documents and agreements. Sonia always made this simple lady believe that everything was being done for the good of the Church. When Queenie became concerned that the corruption and Sonia's demands were too much, Queenie began to resist Sonia's requests. As Queenie was the signing authority of the Armenian Church, this meant, that Sonia could not get her hands on the Church assets as long as Queenie resisted her.

Sonia relaised that Queenie had to be pushed out of the way as soon as possible. Sonia had plans to grab the surplus cash of the Trusts estates at Rs 700 million and to pretend that she (Sonia) was organising a pilgrimage to Hong Kong in the memory of Sir Catchick Paul Chater. Queenie resisted Sonia's pressures to sign the cheque for 700 million for the HOng Kong extravanganza.

Sonia began harassing her with phone calls and more phone calls pretending to be certain policemen etc. Later, she sent Queenie a note saying that she would have to resign as Warden if she refused to sign the cheque. Queenie gathered her friends around and was clearly worried now for her own safety.

On the last Friday, before she died, Queenie was making phone calls to all her friends. Some called her back too. To all she tol dthe same story : that Sonia was going to kill her. She called the other Warden, SUSAN REUBEN and told this to her too. The same Friday afternoon, ARSHAM SOOKIAS one of the older members of the community, called Quennie, and Queenie told him too that she was going to be poisoned and killed. Her exact words to Arsham Sookias, that Friday afternoon "Sonia thinks that she is a Bengal Tiger. I am the wounded tigress, and the wounded tigress will eat up the Bengal Tiger."

Throughout that week Queenie called her freinds and told them of her fear od dying. A week after the Bengal Tigress phone call to Arsham Sookias, Queenie died mysteriously in her sleep. Her body was sent to MADEIRA and company, undertakers. Mr. Madeira, told Stefano Sarkies and Max Galstaun, that he had seen many hundreds of bodies and he could tell which ones were suspicious. Madeira said that it was his expert opinion that Queenie was poisoned.

Of course, the Calcutta Police has been paid to keep quiet. The police have a written complaint of rape of the girl with them and they (police) have done nothing. The murder of poor Queenie Sobti too is covered up.

.

VULTURES GATHER ROUND THE VANISHING ARMENIANS OF CALCUTTA

These pages are dedicated to the Calcutta Armenians. A once proud community of bankers, merchants, philantrophists who gave to the Armenian world the world famous Armenian College and other notable acts of charity.

Today, the Calcutta Armenians are vanishing by human design, as vultures gather round this tiny community to feast on their vast Trusts estates.The vultures are led by an Armenian lady SONIA JOHN, over 80 years old, who cares not a penny for Armenian history and culture. All that concerns her is the making of money and corrupting the powers that be who then help her out with all her imooral deeds and the suppression of the Calcutta Armenian Community. She has sold off Church properties, she has vandalised the historic graveyard inside the Armenian Church grounds, she has sent Armenians to jail with the help of her friends in a throughly CORRUPT POLICE department in Calcutta. All the while she cannot prove that she is an Armenian !

If Calcutta was once a “City of palaces” the sobriquet perhaps owned more to merchant princes from Armenia than to the British Raj. Today, there is no opulence of the bygone era, but memories remain. The Armenian Church, built in 1695 at Chinsurah, West Bengal, occupies a significant place in history, as it is the second church to be built in Bengal.

It is believed that the khojas, as the Armenians were called, had carved out a niche for themselves in Calcutta long before Job Charnock started an English colony in Calcutta. The English, aware of the fact that Armenian merchants were always in good favour with the Mughal Emperors, employed Khoja Sarhad, a local merchant, who had sprung to eminence, to help them get governing rights to three villages. Sarhad justified his appointment by helping the English obtain the historic “Grand Firman” which conferred numerous privileges on them and subsequently paved the way for the establishment of British rule in India. Sarhad, seems to have slipped into oblivion, for history makes no further reference to the shrewd Armenian merchant.

The Armenians thrived in Calcutta and a major part of this wealth was spent in shaping the growth of the city. Johannes Carapiet Galstaun, a leading builder, credited for building 350 houses, developed and beautified central and south Calcutta. As a public spirited citizen, he donated money to the Victoria Memorial Building Fund and made several donations to several institutions. Competing with Galstaun as a patron of education and art, was Arathoon Stephen, whose family came to India in 1857. Among the properties owned by him include Stephen’s Court, a five storeyed building on Park Street, and the Grand and Everest Hotels, later acquired by hotel magnate, M.S.Oberoi. The Armenian community of Calcutta, the largest in India, though only a bare hundred, while maintaining a distinct identity, have amalgamated their lifestyle with the rest of India.

I hope to create world wide interest and revulsion against the skulduggery and financial swindling going on which harms the Calcutta Armenians and with the help of you interested persons worldwide, to create enough interest to save this tiny community of Armenians

February 2002 was perhaps the most infamous day of the ARMENIAN COLLEGE, CALCUTTA.

A little girl, brought from ARMENIA, to be "educated" in the Armenian College was molested and raped inside the College by a friend of MRS. SONIA JOHN, the Manager of the Armenian College.

Calcutta Armenians complained about this to all concerned. Letters were written to the Police too. But, as usual in India, corruption lets the rapist go scot free !
I am copying below the letter of the PARISH PRIEST of the ARMENIAN CHURCH, CALCUTTA.

It is being reproduced so that it may arouse the conscience of the world and that rapists may not walk free, and those who shield rapists like MRS. SONIA JOHN may get punishement too.

This letter which condemns her to the utmost, has been brought to the notice of the CATHOLICOS OF ETCHMIADZIN, the Head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He has appointed Sonia John as the Manager of the Armenian College. But does he care for the words of his own Parish Priest ?

Here is the copy of the letter of Rev. OSHAGAN GULGULIAN who was Priest at Calcutta. He is now in Koln, Germany.
__________________________________________________________

REV. Fr. OSHAGAN GULGULIAN
DIOCESE OF THE Armenian Church of Germany.

V. Rev. Fr. Oshagan Gulgulian

___________________________________________________________

CONFIRMATION OF THE RAPE FROM THE EX-MANAGER OF THE ARMENIAN COLLEGE :

MR. STEFANO SARKIES, A CALCUTTA-ARMENIAN NOW RESIDING IN AUSTRALIA WAS BROUGHT BY MRS. SONIA JOHN TO BE THE MANAGER OF THE COLLEGE. THIS IS HOW HE CONFIRMS THE RAPE INCIDENT TO THE MEDIA IN ARMENIA :

FROM THE MEDIA TO STEFANO SARKIES :

Dear Stefano,
I'm a journalist from Armenia.We wrote articles about Armenian
college in Calcatta, you can find them on www.hetq.am. We are
going to write about it.
We have information that in August 2003, a girl was raped in
college. We don't know is it true? We know, that you work
there, we know that in that time there was also Rev. Gulgulian,
we'll ask him too.Please, if you have any information write us.
Thank you in advance.
Edik

STEFANO SARKIES REPLY : (AUGUST 15, 2004)

HI Edik

Kind regards

Stefano Sarkies

Many Armenians have written to me to post all the news of the CALCUTTA ARMENIAN COLLEGE.

A web-site pretending to be the official web-site of the CALCUTTA ARMENIAN COLLEGE www.armeniancollege.org has been set up by the swindler and fraud MRS. SONIA JOHN and her friends abroad. She has no friends in Calcutta or in India among the local Armenians and therefore has to pretend on the international stage to get her work recognised.

The answer to the web site of the foreign supported Armenian College web site will be this new REAL ARMENIAN COLLEGE WEB SITE. I will post the web-site details soon.